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COMEDY; Places to Tell Jokes Even if They Fall Flat

TWENTY years ago, Long Island had a thriving stand-up comedy scene, one so hip and dynamic that fans didn't need to trek into Manhattan.

But in the comedic landscape where Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Rosie O'Donnell, Ray Romano and Kevin James all had their start, today there is only one major full-time comedy club, Governor's in Levittown. Long Island comedians, a proud group with a distinct storytelling tradition, have survived by any means possible, short of standing on a street corner and yelling their routines at passing motorists.

"If I had to, I'd show up on a milk crate in the middle of the L.I.E. to get time," said Paul Bond, a comedian who has been doing stand-up for 17 years.

Established comedians have taken refuge in private parties, volunteer-firehouse comedy nights and P. T. A. fund-raisers. And though the number of major full-time clubs is down to one, there is a scattering of weekly or monthly comedy nights in bars and restaurants.

For up-and-comers, getting microphone time takes a little more imagination. On a Tuesday evening last month, Cara Amore and Joe Pontillo set up a mike in one corner of a Starbucks in Westbury. Ms. Amore interrupted patrons chatting over lattes with a hearty "Welcome to our comedy show."

The 90-minute show, with Ms. Amore as M. C., featured one stand-up after another. Mr. Pontillo riffed on living with his parents, while Will Vought closed the show after rushing over from Governor's.

The monthly Starbucks event is a workout room, where comedians perform without pay for the practice. "Comics create their own little workout rooms," said Peter Bales of East Northport, a comedian and historian. "Anything to get mike time." He is also the founder of Stand-Up University, a school teaching the comic arts that has been based in different clubs.

"These shows are like floating crap games," he said. "They open for a while, then close down."

One step up in sophistication is the comedy room, where a comedian takes over a bar or club and runs a show, usually charging no more than $5 or $10. Four years ago, the comedian Joe DeVito started such a room by walking into Bold O'Donoghue, a tavern in East Rockaway, and asking, "You guys do comedy?" He persuaded the owner to not only let him run a show, but also to keep the admission fees and pay the comedians. Mr. DeVito still runs the show there when his schedule allows.

In the 1980's, fledgling comedians had it easier. "There were more clubs than comics," said Bob Nelson, a veteran comedian who made his debut in the late 70's at Richard M. Dixon's White House Inn in Massapequa, Long Island's first comedy club.

It is gone now, as is Richie Minervini's East Side Comedy in Huntington, which was the premier club of the 80's, renowned for recognizing and encouraging new talent.

Jeff Sussman, a talent manager who once ran East Side and counts Kevin James of the CBS television show "The King of Queens" among his clients, recalled: "Kevin started at East Side. Richie grew Kevin."

When bar and restaurant owners realized the profit potential, old discos were retrofitted into comedy clubs, and open mikes sprouted everywhere: at the Ponderosa, the Red Lobster and Sizzler. And clubs appeared in neighborhood taverns from Floral Park to Montauk.

But then the scene collapsed. For whatever reason -- overexposure, incessant stand-up on cable television, bad management by club owners or too many bad comedians at too many mikes -- by the mid-90's, most clubs had closed their doors.

At Governor's, which opened in 1980, Jim Finn, the owner, said, "We've had to work at it to survive."

"We've concentrated on national acts for weekends," he said. "We do a traditional show -- M. C., feature spot, headliner. The pay scale has not increased for M. C. and feature acts since the 90's."

For the Brokerage, an entertainment club in Bellmore featuring comedy and music, surviving has meant bringing in soap opera stars. At a soap show last month, the audience, all women, had a question-and-answer session with Aiden Turner and Jeff Branson of "All My Children," as well as comedy sets by Susan Prekel and Brian McFadden.

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Long Island's comedians find work at private parties and corporate events, but most of the work comes from comedy nights run by P. T. A.'s, firehouses, temples, churches and nonprofit organizations.

"People are using comedy to raise money," said Rich Walker, a comedian. "Stand-up is the cheapest form of entertainment."

On the last Saturday in April, Mr. Walker, along with George Gallo, Joe Bronzi and Paul Bond, took turns performing on a stage made of a raised patch of artificial turf in a packed Islip Fire Hall. It was a rocking two-and-a-half-hour show preceded by a chicken parmigiana dinner, all for $30.

Such fund-raisers are not amateur nights. The Islip show booked seasoned professionals, while comedy nights run by larger nonprofit organizations can feature top acts in thousand-seat theaters. The younger generation has a tougher time finding a chance to perform, those in the business say.

"What we need is a bunch of younger comics," said Joe Starr, one of the last of the Long Island comedians to come up through the club scene. "We need a scene. Some 30-, 40-year-old guy who takes a stand-up class can't hang out. He has to go to work in the morning."

Perhaps the new Long Island Comedy Festival will give a boost to the younger generation. After winning the Huntington Arts Council Laff-Off competition in 2005, Paul Anthony of Massapequa had the confidence to start the festival, which will tour historic theaters and comedy clubs this summer.

At Dave and Buster's in Islandia, George Gallo, a comedian, has a show twice a month in which comedians experiment with material that is too far out for the clubs. There is even a monthly comedy night at Samantha's Li'l Bit of Heaven, a Christian ministry coffeehouse in East Northport.

Perhaps a new scene will be nurtured by Michael Epstein of Glen Cove, who is recreating at Mirelle's Blues in Westbury his rock club My Father's Place, where George Carlin, Robert Klein and David Brenner performed. Mr. Epstein will also be promoting comics, but this time instead of simultaneously broadcasting them on the radio, he will use the Internet as well as the club.

There are weekly comedy rooms run by Mike Dillon, a comedian, at the Comfort Inn in Medford and the Holiday Inn in Ronkonkoma, and monthly comedy nights at the Tin Alley Grill in Garden City, the Bagel Boss in Hicksville, Mother Kelly's Pizza in Cedarhurst and the Page One restaurant in Glen Cove.

Chris Rush, a comedian, believes the cultural and political time is right for a stand-up resurgence.

"Our reality has become surreal and satirical," he said. "We are living in an enormous Monty Python sketch. Comedy purges fear."

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A version of this article appears in print on May 21, 2006, on Page LI14 of the National edition with the headline: COMEDY; Places to Tell Jokes Even if They Fall Flat. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe